After
The Chemistry of Death
Simon Beckett2006
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Made to be Broken
Kelley Armstrong2009
A former cop working as a hitwoman searches for a missing teenager. She navigates the Canadian woods and her own criminal connections.
Same tense register, still crime
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
- pace0prose0bleak0
Deadline
Seanan McGuire2011
A grieving journalist investigates a conspiracy involving a faked death and the origins of the zombie virus.
Same tense register, still thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Roses of May
Dot Hutchison2017
FBI agents track a serial killer who leaves victims in churches while they support survivors of a previous kidnapping case.
Same tense register, still crime
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The inquisitor
Mark Allen Smith2012
A professional torturer who specializes in psychological pressure breaks his own rules to protect a child. He becomes the target of his clients.
Same tense register, still crime
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Robert Wilson2013
A security expert searches for a tycoon's kidnapped daughter in London. The investigation involves the Indian mob and religious extremists.
Same tense register, still crime
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
Empty Space
M. John Harrison2012
Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.
tense → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino1972
Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
Too Like the Lightning
Ada Palmer2016
In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.
tense → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
Valis
Philip K. Dick1981
A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.
tense → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
- pace0prose0bleak-2
From Here to Eternity
Caitlin Doughty2017
A mortician travels the world to document how different cultures handle their dead, from open-air pyres to mummification.
tense → warm
pace0·prose0·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
This Girl
Colleen Hoover2013
A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.
tense → earnest
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Score
Elle Kennedy2016
A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.
tense → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace0prose-1bleak-2
Better Off Dead
Lee Child2021
Jack Reacher investigates a staged car crash in Arizona and infiltrates a dangerous local crew to find a missing woman.
tense → propulsive, still thriller
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
All Rhodes Lead Here
Mariana Zapata2021
A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.
tense → warm
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
Faster
tense → propulsive, still crime
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Gone
James Patterson2013
A drug lord escapes prison and hunts Detective Michael Bennett, who is hiding in the California woods with his ten children.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Extreme Prey
John Sandford2016
While working on a presidential campaign, Lucas Davenport tracks an armed man planning to assassinate the governor.
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Dark Tide
Elizabeth Haynes2013
A woman living on a boat in London discovers a body in the water. The narrative follows the police investigation and her own history of debt.
Same tense register, still crime
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
tense → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline2008
A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.
tense → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino1972
Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
Beelzebub's tales to his grandson
Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950
An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+2bleak-2
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas R. Hofstadter1979
An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.
tense → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
tense → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Doomsday Book
Joel Levy2006
This nonfiction guide analyzes various global catastrophe scenarios, from nuclear war to pandemics, and calculates the probability of each.
Same tense register, still crime
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Resurrection
Ken McClure2000
A doctor investigates a lethal outbreak in a Scottish hospital that appears to be a deliberate act of biological warfare.
Same tense register, still thriller
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood1985
In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.
tense → cold
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
Doomsday Book
Connie Willis1992
A student travels to 14th-century England while a virus spreads in the present. She arrives during the Black Death due to a technical error.
tense → bleak
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
tense → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
